“It’s a fact that [Yasukuni] is the main facility of remembrance, and the survivors’ families also feel this way,” a fact that can’t be changed by government dictate, Mr. Abe said during a Tokyo symposium.

He was rejecting suggestions by some politicians and academics that another facility be created or designated as the main site for honoring the country’s war dead, partly to avoid offending Japan’s neighbors.

Mr. Abe also said that the nation’s constitutional separation of church and state prohibit the government from ordering a religious institution, in this case the Yasukuni Shrine, from “un-enshrining” the war criminals.

Mr. Abe angered Japan’s neighbors–and annoyed the U.S.–in December by becoming the first Japanese prime minister to visit Yasukuni since Junichiro Koizumi left office in 2006.

Many Asian countries, particularly Japan’s neighbors China and South Korea, view Yasukuni as a symbol of Tokyo’s militarist past because it honors not just Japan’s war dead but also convicted World War II war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, who was prime minister during most of the war.

Often suggested as a “replacement” for Yasukuni is the publicly managed Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery. Located just 500 meters from Yasukuni, Chidorigafuchi is home to the remains of around 360,000 unidentified civilians and military personnel who died during World War II. However, there are no known war criminals buried there, and interment doesn’t involve a religious ceremony, as at Yasukuni.

While members of Japan’s imperial family dare not visit Yasukuni, they regularly attend memorial ceremonies at Chidorigafuchi, as do prime ministers, without drawing so much as a raised eyebrow from China or South Korea.

Mr. Abe frequently compares Yasukuni to Arlington National Cemetery in the U.S., but many say Chidorigafuchi is a closer equivalent to Arlington.

It was the first such visit to the memorial by members of the U.S. Cabinet, and was seen as a clear message to Japan’s new conservative leader at a time of heightened tensions between Japan and its neighbors.

So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that Mr. Abe’s subsequent visit to Yasukuni didn’t just enrage China and South Korea, but also irked the U.S., which in unusually strong criticism said it was “disappointed that Japan’s leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan’s neighbors.”

Comments (5 of 16)

The only reason why any Westerner has any issue with Japan is because Japan once usurped the Western monopoly of imperialism and exploitation. The people who have any standing at all to complain about Japan are Asians in occupied countries, with the notable exception of Korea, which was a complicit partner to the Japanese colonial enterprise. Korea, of course, tries extremely hard to deny it, but the Chinese do occasionally do remind them that they were a willing Robin (not coerced) to the Japanese Batman.

If all these comments were an objective critique of the Japanese stance, that is still acceptable. But as can be seen on this forum and elsewhere, anti-Japanese sentiment is emotive and motivated by nothing less than the most egregious racism. It has incidentally become far more easy to bash yellows than blacks.

The reason why hardliners in Japan ignore Western sentiment is precisely because Japanese recognise correctly, that Westerners are inherently racist and deluded as to the superiority of their culture, and will never accept Japan or any other Asian nation as an equal, not in the 1910s during the formation of the League of Nations and not today as well. As right-thinking observers of the situation rightly point out, no matter how much they apologise they will never be treated as another Germany, not least because all its neighbours are not respectable developed nations, but rogue states more than willing to play up the issue repeatedly for political gain.

On the other hand, Westerners and in particular Americans are just trying to impose their values on the Japanese. When they fail to do so, they vilify Japan and paint it as a warmongering and dark nation, despite all its best efforts towards pacifism and reconciliation in the past decades. They also conveniently disregard the fact that Japan does not have a credible fighting force and a strong liberal lobby, choosing instead to shower love on the feudal and violent Koreas and dear China, which seeks to undermine the US at every opportunity.

If China or South Korea is sincere about reconciliation, they know very well what to do - offer an olive branch, talk to the Japanese people, talk to the Japanese business lobby to unseat the right wing; they just adamantly refuse to do it. It should be known that Abe also has China's fearmongering, incursions and threats to thank for his second chance.

11:53 am April 19, 2014

jamawns wrote:

I said religion issues could be and have been treated by religion honors.
Vatican has saved Yasukuni since 1945. As a result, Yasukuni has been intact.
Nothing was hidden. Yasukuni has been there.

In 1945, GHQ planned to burn Yasukuni shrine and built a dog race circuit, and such plan made controversies and became out of control. General McArthur invited two Catholic priests, Father Bruno Bitter and Father Patrick Byrne, to GHQ to asked opinions. They respectively said “whatever winner or loser, any country has right and obligation to show respect for war dead soldiers devoting to the country. Burning Yasukuni by GHQ means crime. If GHQ assumes Yaskuni is the center of Shinto Nationalism as wrong nationalism, what to be banished is the system of Shinto Nationalism but not Yasukuni. All the people are perfectly granted with freedom of religion. Whatever religion the person believes such as Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, Jewish and so on, all soldiers who died to devote to their nations should be able to be commemorated in Yasukuni.”
Moreover, in 1951, Vatican reconfirmed the decision and cited “believer’s duty for one's mother country”

11:52 am April 19, 2014

Anonymous wrote:

I said religion issues could be and have been treated by religion honors.
Vatican has saved Yasukuni since 1945. As a result, Yasukuni has been intact.
Nothing was hidden. Yasukuni has been there.

In 1945, GHQ planned to burn Yasukuni shrine and built a dog race circuit, and such plan made controversies and became out of control. General McArthur invited two Catholic priests, Father Bruno Bitter and Father Patrick Byrne, to GHQ to asked opinions. They respectively said “whatever winner or loser, any country has right and obligation to show respect for war dead soldiers devoting to the country. Burning Yasukuni by GHQ means crime. If GHQ assumes Yaskuni is the center of Shinto Nationalism as wrong nationalism, what to be banished is the system of Shinto Nationalism but not Yasukuni. All the people are perfectly granted with freedom of religion. Whatever religion the person believes such as Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, Jewish and so on, all soldiers who died to devote to their nations should be able to be commemorated in Yasukuni.”
Moreover, in 1951, Vatican reconfirmed the decision and cited “believer’s duty for one's mother country”
LINK//www.japanfocus.org/-John-Breen/3312

Of course Yasukuni Shrine can't be replaced. It is where the descendants of class A war criminals pay their respects to their ancestors. Japan isn't Germany. Japan, in their eyes, did not "unconditionally surrender." To them, it was at best an armistice. In their eyes, they are merely in a "holding action," waiting for the opportunity to show their true selves. This is not the Japanese who smile at you at work or whom you socialize with as friends. This is not their bosses or even their bosses' bosses. This is the coterie that was largely untouched by MacArthur. Germany was divided into 4 zones and two states and its political parties were organized by the victors. Japan was left nearly untouched. So in 2014 you only have a continuation of the same political mindset as in the 1920's. They can't help but be this way. See http://tinyurl.com/k5b3dnh

4:33 am April 19, 2014

When at Yasukuni, Gaijin dupes, don't forget to visit.... wrote:

.. don't forget to visit the Yasukuni Museum in which it states clearly in English that Japan in the 20th Century was a victim of its noble goal of freeing Asia from western imperialism. That's right, you didn't know that? Why did you think that Taiwan was taken over? Because the Qing were really Portuguese. That's why the Ryukyu Kingdom was taken over - because the Okinawans were really Belgians. That's why Korea was taken over, because the Koreans were really Scottish. Manchuria was taken over because the Manchus were, oh yeah, let's get it right - since Qing was Manchu, they were Portuguese. China was taken over because as is well known, the Chinese are really Basques. As for the Indonesians, Filipinos, Malays, Singaporeans, Australians, Burmese, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Thais, Pacific Islanders - they were all going to be freed finally, so that they wouldn't need to worry about the yoke of European imperialism. They finally would be freed to enjoy life as subjects - oops, I mean, slaves - oops, I mean associated members of the Japan-oops - I mean Asian co=Prosperity Zone. And for that great sacrifice of the Japanese, nobody has any respect, only complaints! This is why the Japanese turn their backs on gaijin - all ungrateful.

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